Twisty thriller with an exceptional cast. Robert Young plays a dishonest playboy who is financially dependent on his wife (Rita Johnson) while dallying with Jane Greer and Susan Hayward. Greer's part is insubstantial but Johnson is excellent and Hayward gives the film a huge boost with her usual dynamism as an unrepentant gold-digger.
It's a murder mystery that rests on that familiar premise, the unidentifiable corpse. The story is narrated from the witness stand by Young who may well be an unreliable narrator. His uncorroborated testimony gives an already absorbing plot another twist.
It’s fun to see the suspect play the field before his complicated comeuppance. But the strongest emotion in play is just how trapped he is in his marriage and work. The gilded cage from which he never escapes. This allows Young to make his ill-fated character at least a little sympathetic.
The fatalism gives it a noir edge, though there are no mean streets or expressionism. The big plus is how Irving Pichel's direction speeds us through the chicanery of many intricate plot complications. And there's a fine, pessimistic script. Young felt his counter-casting as a villain made the public stay away; they all missed a stylish, exciting crime picture.